How to get your baby used to a travel cot
Life doesn’t stop when you have a baby. You can still go on holiday. You can visit friends and family. Traveling with a baby does however take planning. That doesn’t just mean packing enough clothes and bottles and nappies.
You should invest in the best travel cots even if you don’t have any plans to travel as they can be handy things to have on hand for staying at a friend’s or family’s houses.
It also means making sure you know your baby has somewhere safe and comfortable to sleep. Family or friends may not have a cot, or somewhere safe for your baby to sleep when you visit.
A travel cot is an ideal accessory to let your baby sleep or rest in a safe place when you are away from home.
While many hotels will provide a travel cot, having your own will avoid arriving and being advised the hotel has run out, or that the travel cot isn’t suitable for your baby.
By taking your own travel cot on holiday, it can let your baby sleep in a familiar environment and preserve some routine – and let you sleep!
If you are thinking of using a travel cot for your baby, here are some things you can do to help your baby get used to a travel cot.
Let them sleep in it at home
Before you travel with your baby or let your baby have their first sleepover at the grandparents, let them sleep in the travel cot for two nights before the trip or sleepover. This will help your baby get used to the travel cot in a familiar environment and with you present.
This is especially important if family or friends will use the travel cot and you won’t be present to settle your baby to sleep. By trialing the travel cot at home, when you then place your baby in the cot in an unfamiliar environment, they will be more comfortable because it is familiar to them.
Put a familiar blanket it
You can also make the travel cot a familiar environment by using a blanket or duvet from home.
Creating a similar sleep environment to the one they are used to at home will signal to your baby that a travel cot is a place for sleep, just like at home.
It will help them feel safe if they are tucked into their sleeping bag or duvet that they would have if they were at home.
Babies like routine. If your baby sleeps with the same teddy every night, take that teddy with you.
In the same way, having a familiar duvet or sleeping bag from home can help them settle into the travel cot, so too can having their favourite teddy to cuddle into, just as they would at home.
Don’t let them play in the cot
Don’t be tempted to use a travel cot as a playpen, if you want the baby to sleep in the travel cot when you are on holiday or they are visiting family and friends.
If you let your baby use the travel cot as a playpen, they can come to associate this with playtime, making them less likely to sleep easily in the travel cot.
If you want something that they can play in during the day whilst you get housework done, you should invest in one of the best playpens that you can afford.
